George
Senior Member
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Clandestinely incredulous
Posts: 184
England
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I have had many panic attacks and most of them have resulted in me going off to hospital in an ambulence with wires strapped all over my chest and limbs. Not once have I ever been kept in after an initial examination by a doctor and I doubt I ever will. 160 beats a minute is nothing to worry about really and almost all of my panic attacks have resulted in a heart rate of over 200 beats a minute and many times I have found myself in a situation where the panic continues to spiral out of control until my heart rate is beating at its maximum (probably 220-230), so 160 is just a cruise.
My 'worst' panic attack was over a year ago. I was in a state of high anxiety all day (heart rate mid 90s since waking). Then in the evening my heart rate was sitting at just over 100 at rest, which escalated in to panic and resulted in a heart rate of over 200. I called an ambulence and my heart rate was literally resting at 170. I couldn't believe it, my resting heart rate was 170 BMP! Then it slowed to 130 but quickly rose back to 170 after I began to panic more and more. I went in to hospital and my heart was slowly coming down and eventually they let me go once it reached about 100.
Also, the fact that you had a panic attack is quite a clear indication that you have an issue controlling your emotions, plus you have a history of anxiety and panic attacks. Rationally speaking, there is no reason why a heart rate of 160 poses any immediate danger. Think about those tour de france guys out on their bikes all day, or long distance runners. How fast do you think their hearts are beating for such extended periods? Probably easily in the region of 160 or more. Unless you have some form of pre-existing heart issue then surely you're not going to suffer any consequence?
You can also look at it from an evolutionary point of view; the mammalian heart evolved from very simple circulatory systems in fish and invertabrates hundreds of millions of years ago in to the more complex system that all mammals have (4 chambered heart and complex vascular system) and it only has one funtion: to pump blood. It didn't evolve in to a weak little muscle that can barely perform the work that it is given, maybe just enough to survive. Rather, it adapted to meet the needs of the host organism. Our ancient ancestors did not have the luxury of living a comfortable life like we do today and consequently their hearts would have been doing much more work than ours, on average. They would have been on their feet all day, hunting, foraging, fending off wild beasts and running for their lives from lions and tigers. Imagine how many 'panic attcks' (fight or flight responses) those ancient people must have had in a day? My point is, the heart is there to do its job and it won't just give in on you just because you have a moment of panic. It isn't there just to beat at 60 beats a minute when you're resting, it is also there to beat at 200 beats a minute or more when you need it to and can beat at accelerated rates for extended periods without suffering any consequence. This is not medical advice, just a fact. That's what it is meant to do. Also, I want to make one more note on this evolutionary thing: if hearts had indeed evolved as weak little pumps barely able to perform, our average lifespan would be hugely reduced and the human race may very well have died out as a result many hundreds of thousands of years ago due to the fact that we wouldn't live long enough to successfully raise offspring. Since this is not the case, we can assume the opposite is true.
Did you know that a chicken heart beats at around 250bmp, and a hummingbird heart can beat at over 1000 beats per minute?! (and some species may live nearly a decade).
On a final note, nobody can tell you why your heart was racing when you woke up but I don't think its uncommon to wake up with a racing heart, especially in cases where anxiety and panic attacks are present. Perhaps you had a bad dream or a night terror (panic attack while sleeping), or maybe you were just getting hot? Do you actually know how fast your heart was beating when you felt it 'racing'? It was probably nowhere near 160, since 160 is the rate it was measured after you had panicked indicating that it had risen to that level.
Good luck,
George.
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